The Simple Truth of Temptation; the Greater Truth of Grace - Mark 1: 9-15

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

I am a relatively simple man. I like coffee black, without cream or sugar. I like pie without ice cream. I don’t wear a smart watch. I even write the occasional sermon with a fountain pen and paper. Maybe that’s why I like Mark’s account of Jesus’ temptation: it’s a lesson in simplicity. Where Matthew and Luke give us the play-by-play, what the Devil said, how Jesus responded, and what Scripture was used to defeat satan’s lies, Mark does it in one sentence: “And [Jesus] was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by satan.” That’s it: simple, direct and to the point.

But as a pastor, there is a different reason I like this brief narrative. I like it because it strips away the “DIY” aspect of temptation and forces us to simply see Jesus.

When you read Matthew and Luke, you hear the devil tempt Jesus three, distinct times. Jesus was hungry, so the first temptation, turn stones to bread, is very enticing. The second and third temptations, for Jesus to throw Himself off the temple pinnacle and to bow down and worship satan, sound rather ridiculous and superfluous, but Satan’s goal, after 40 days, is to keep Jesus from the cross by tempting Jesus’ trust in the Heavenly Father. Each time, Jesus turns to the Scripture and pointedly answers the temptation with the very Word of God.

So, the preacher wants to say, if you become like Jesus and learn your Bibles, if you study, you, too, can resist the devil’s temptations. The pious child of God, not wanting to be as salacious as our infamously ill-fated parents, Adam and Eve, who failed miserably when tempted, straps up with the armor of God and practices blocking satan’s temptous arrows. I can do it, the Christian says, and leaves the church in confidence that he or she will withstand satan’s temptations.

But at lunch at the restaurant, a beautiful or handsome stranger catches your eye and before you can say, “Lead us not into temptation,” the eyes linger longer than they need to and a thought, just a thought, flits through the mind. Strike one. That afternoon, the ref misses what you – and everyone else – sees as an obvious call, and before you can pray, “May the words of my mouth be acceptable in your sight,” you tell that ref just how poor his eyesight is with rather colorful verbiage. Grr…strike two. You make it through the week, more or less unscathed, but then last night, tempers flare faster than you can say, “A soft answer turneth away wrath,” and you and your spouse, or maybe you and your kids, or maybe you and your parents mix it up pretty good, with verbal shots fired and emotional wounds on both sides. Strike three. I guess we aren’t that different than those Garden Great-Great Grandparents, are we? But remember: when it comes to failing to keep God’s Law, a miss is as good as a mile; there are no three strikes. “Be holy as I am holy” leaves no wiggle room for “almost” or “pretty good.”

And it frustrates the child of God who wants to resist temptations, who does not want to surrender to the flesh, the mouth, the eyes, or the ears, who wants to follow in the footsteps of Christ and not in the stumble-bumbles of our Eden forefathers. What went wrong? Why can’t we resist temptations? Why can’t I be like Jesus?

You are in good company – and I use the word “good” here in a sanctified sense. Every Christian struggles with temptation, although in some ways, I am finding that it does get easier as I get older...until it isn’t any easier, after all. Even St. Paul lamented that the good he wanted to do he failed to do, and the evil he wanted to avoid, he did anyway. In a way, that helps ease the conscience (at least I’m not alone) but on the other hand, it adds to the burden (if Paul can’t do it, how can I?).

Go back to the Gospel lesson for a moment. Notice that right before Jesus is tempted, He is baptized. For those of you thinking, didn’t we already hear that Gospel narrative a few weeks ago, yes – it was the first Sunday after Epiphany 6 weeks ago. There is a reason it’s repeated, but it may not be exactly what you think.  Still dripping with Jordan’s baptismal waters, the Father’s blessing, “You are my beloved Son,” still ringing in His ears, the dove’s descending fresh in His memory, Jesus is driven out into the wilderness by none other than the Spirit of God, Himself, not for prayer time, or alone time, or time to rest, but to be tempted by Satan. The Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness, alone, so that Jesus, baptized like us, Spirit-filled like us, blessed by God like us, can be tempted like us.

He does that so He can crush the devil at his own game. Where the devil lies about the Father’s care, Jesus is the Truth. Where the devil tries to redirect Jesus from the cross, Jesus is the Way. Where the devil points to certain death, Jesus is the Life. Jesus, the Word of God incarnate, the Way, the Truth and the Life, defeats the old, evil foe. He emerges, not defeated as we have been – sometimes accidentally in weakness, sometimes willingly in arrogant foolishness - but victorious, tempted in every way as we are tempted, yet without sin. Don’t mistake these temptations as being mere facades, phony bologna, a smoke-and-mirrors production to make you think Jesus understands. The physical temptations were real, but what greater temptation is there than this: do you trust God’s merciful love and grace for you? Do you trust His promise that you are His beloved? Do you believe that in the face of all of this that you see, experience, and feel, He really cares – because, if He did, would He let this all be happening? From the empty wilderness of temptation to the abandoned wilderness of the cross, Christ trusts His Father, even when all evidence points to the contrary.

What happens to Jesus is what happens to all the baptized today. Whether the baptismal water is freshly dripping off our foreheads or a vague memory in our parent’s minds, whether we are six days old or six decades old, those same Baptismal waters that mark us as children of God, that wash away our sins, that opens the doors of heaven for us, also put a cross-hair target on us for satan’s temptations. He doesn’t need to work on his own; he works on children of God, and the sign of the cross that marks us redeemed by Christ the crucified also marks us as his target. “You are baptized,” satan says. “That’s nice. Congrats.” It’s what Jesus faced, now dropped onto you: “Do you trust God’s merciful love and grace for you? Do you trust His promise that you are His beloved? Do you believe that in the face of all of this that you see, experience, and feel, He really cares – because, if He did, would He let this all be happening?”

Your task, your calling, your life as a child of God is not to perfectly resist satan’s lies and temptations. You are not called to be your own Savior. That is Jesus’ job; do not try to put him out of work. Besides, the work is done already! The Chrisitan’s calling is to trust in the One who emerged from the wilderness victorious over satan’s half-truths (as an aside, have you ever notice that a half-truth is more dangerous than a complete lie?), even as you follow after Christ and His cross, and even as you stumble in that cross-marked and cross-bearing journey.

The cross…there it is. That same cross that was placed on you, that marks you as satan’s enemy and fresh-faced target, that cross is where Jesus goes. From the temptation in the wilderness, it will take Jesus three years to arrive at the cross outside Jerusalem, to be given a sham trial, to be innocently convicted, and be put to death. But, this is God’s plan for the salvation of the world. Christ is your substitute, not only in being tempted without falling but in innocently dying. He takes your place in death so that you can join Him in life, now and into eternity.

In the eternal bliss of heaven, temptation will cease and there will be no more burden of conscience from this life when we sin against God and our fellow neighbor. There will be only grace upon grace, with tears and sorrow and sighing will fade into the forgetfulness of the grave, and our Lord will NOT raise these with our whole, holy and restored bodies.

But until then, temptation – real, honest, temptation - along with the gut-wrenching, conscience-bruising, heart-aching realization that we have sinned against not just our neighbors (which includes spouse and child and parent, but also friends and enemies, the guy two houses and three fences over, coworkers, civil authorities, and brothers and sisters in Christ) but also against God Himself, temptation is answered not in greater resolve to not be tempted, but in confessing it, repenting of it, and being forgiven of it. (It is worth mentioning that being tempted is not a sin, after all, Jesus was tempted but remained sinless, but it is also worth remembering that in our weak human flesh, the line where temptation ends and sin begins is often blurry, at best, or unseen until viewed with hindsight.) The greatest temptation of all is that having fallen into temptation and sin, that somehow makes you unworthy of God’s love and mercy; that having sinned, you are outside His grace; that your Baptism is somehow invalid because of your un-child-of-God-like behavior; that you are no longer Christian but merely sinner who deserves the worst, condemnation.

In Matthew and Luke’s record of the temptation, Jesus tells satan, “Be gone!” He will never say that to you. Instead, He calls, gathers, invites you into the Church to hear again the baptismal promise that your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. He summons you, the tempted ones, the weak-in-faith ones, the sin-marked and conscience-burdened ones, the repentant ones, to His table, where He is present for you as both the meal and the host, and invites you to eat and drink of His body and blood.  There is no guilting, shaming, scolding or chastising. There is grace upon grace, pouring down upon you from the cross of Christ, forgiveness multiplied upon itself, forgiving, strengthening, and encouraging. With spiritual food and drink, you are refreshed and renewed to leave this holy hill and descend back down into the valley of the shadow where you will be tempted again, and you will stumble, fall, and sin again. This side of heaven, you are still a sinner and sinners sin. Yet, this constant remains: you are a baptized child of God. God’s grace is greater than your sins.

So, depart in peace, dear fellow sinners-and-saints. In the eyes of God, all He sees is His Son and you in Him. He doesn’t see successes or failures. What He sees is Jesus and you redeemed and forgiven through the cross. After all, “you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). Amen.